Behind closed doors meeting to decide £129,000 Welsh council top boss
Richard Evans, Local Democracy Reporter
Councillors will meet behind closed doors this week to decide who to employ as a north Wales council’s next chief executive, with a salary of at least £129,195.
Current Conwy council chief executive Iwan Davies is set to step down this month and retire after 11 years at the helm, and Conwy’s senior employment committee met this morning to discuss his replacement.
The press and public were excluded from attending the discussions.
A special council meeting will also take place on Thursday morning when the matter will again be discussed away from the public eye.
A Conwy County Council spokeswoman said: “A special meeting of Conwy County Borough Council will be held on Thursday 27 October to appoint a new chief executive.
“Councillors will receive presentations from the shortlisted candidates recommended by the senior employment committee.
“The successful candidate will be formally announced once due process has been completed.”
Although the exact date of the announcement is not known, a decision is expected relatively quickly, given that the current chief executive is retiring.
Mr Davies, 58, has been with the council for 29 years and was given the top job in 2011.
According to council figures, the chief executive’s salary is between £129,195 and £137,103, taking into account yearly increments, with pension contributions of around £27K.
In July Conwy’s leader Cllr Charlie McCoubrey paid tribute to the departing chief executive.
“It’s a wrench to see Iwan go after many years of dedicated service, but we’re looking forward to welcoming a new chief executive,” he said.
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Councils all over the country claim they are struggling financially but not when it comes to fancy salaries and pensions. Why are we forced to pay top money for failure?
Why on earth is any public servant, earning more than 80k? These people are paid from the public purse not by private enterprise, they recieve multiple genereous benefits, even a driver. And sometimes, more frequently than should happen they are utterly unanswerable, awful and machivallian. Think ex Carms CC CEO, Mark James, who must be one of the worst examples ever and got over 200k. There should be a cap in LA and the NHS , a total root and branch re- organisation and money to be invested in front line services. What is more important? Some lazy, ineffectual administrator… Read more »
This is the same council that has an £18m shortfall to make up, which will result in job losses. Gwarthus. Plus they promote the colonisation of Wales with greatly inflated ‘population projections’ in their Local Development Plan. Gwarthus. Anathema.